The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
The present disclosure relates in general to tracking radioactive shield containers and detecting the sources within such containers. The radioactive shields are transported to and from well sites by trucks and transportation containers called overpacks through land and water worldwide. The invention also tracks the truck and overpack through wireless media, the information sent through this wireless media is read by an asset tracking software which has special algorithms developed to read and interpret this data and transform it to give the asset tracking software user information about the position and state of truck, overpack, the source shields and sources.
The disclosure includes an electronic controller equipped with keypad and display to allow authorized users to load and remove the radioactive shield containers with sources from the truck or overpack. The system will load a set of radioactive source shields with sources and will track them while in transport through wireless media which is both cellular and satellite based. While loaded, the source shields and sources can not be removed form the truck or overpack unless and authorized users does so. Once the radioactive shields are removed from the truck or overpack, the controller will not allow movement of the truck or overpack unless the same radioactive source shields with the radioactive sources that were taken out initially are restored and validated by an authorized user. If there is any deviation from this process that is not entered and validated by an authorized user then an alarm is sent via wireless means to a global asset tracking system so that appropriate action can be taken.
Problems associated with such transportation may include: 1) theft or loss of vehicles and overpacks containing radioactive material; 2) theft or loss of radioactive material from vehicles and overpacks; 3) the loss of radioactive material due to violation of standard operating procedures; and 4) compliance with various government regulations regarding the transportation of radioactive materials.
It remains desirable to provide improvements in efficiency, flexibility, reliability, and maintainability of the transportation of radioactive sources.